In the Depths of Winter

As I hear him cough downstairs, I feel concern that my husband is getting sick. I’ve been sick for a week and I pray that he will be spared.

During this inward time of healing with pots full of steaming ginger tea and deep rests amid the coughing spells, I’m basically being a hermit in the depths of winter. It’s easy to look back now and say that having to cancel everything and hole up bed has indeed been a blessing (complete with an almost compulsive obsession to view everything having to do with the British Royal Family, the monarchy, dynasty and history of the United Kingdom).

Here in the high desert, the nearby mountains are capped with snow, but the lands remain dry as a dusty bone. Even with the stunning beauty in the landscape, I crave moisture. Here in New Mexico, we are not spared the imbalanced condition of life on Planet Earth. For a few tearful moments, I merged with the oneness of our human family, starkly reminded of the contrast between the suffering of others and the abundance in my life. How to you contend with such dissonance?

Right now, I choose to focus on beauty. A friend just reminded me that beauty is an inside job. And I add the reminder that sometimes we need surround ourselves with beauty to find it within. There will never be a shortage of beauty so long as it lives in the memory of our heart.

Beauty isn’t all about just nice loveliness. Beauty is about more rounded, substantial becoming. So I think beauty, in that sense, is about an emerging fullness, a greater sense of grace and elegance, a deeper sense of depth, and also a kind of homecoming for the enriched memory of your unfolding life. ~John O’Donohue